sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

This passage is very emotional. The writer feels very strongly about his religion and the
way the Israelites act. Ethos is the style of this writing. He also uses imagery to get his point
across. The Israelites are known as God’s visible people. They were believed to be sinners.
They were wicked and bitter people. They were always the cause of destruction. This is a
sermon about a Christian’s opinion of hell. The writer wants to prove to his readers and
listeners that hell is a real place. That God has given us the chance to be forgiven for our sins, and that’s why most people are saved from not going to hell. Many people are uncertain of God’s power and his existence. He is trying to express the need of the Christian lifestyle. He also tries to convince them to leave their old ways and convert into the Christian ways.

God chose not to send some of the sinners to hell. Jonathan Edwards talks about the pain and horror that sinners will have going to hell. He describes hell to be a bottomless pit that is full of fire that God holds you over. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and take them as his own and God will be willing to let him. Hell opens its mouth to receive the sinners so that they will be swallowed and lost forever. Being saved and turning your life over to God is the way to have life after death. God will not put up with people who don’t believe in him so when their time comes God will just watch them fall. He will have no pity for them, if they cry with loud voices he will act as though he doesn’t hear them.

I think that Edwards really got to his audience with this sermon. He scares his audience by saying “I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them with my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments (Is.63:3). At the end of the sermon after putting the sinners down and scaring them with his view of hell, he reaches out to the sinners trying to make them follow Gods path. He asks his audiences are their souls as precious as the people in Suffield rejoice day to day for their Christ. I think this sermon opened up a better understanding to being a Christian and being a sinner. If you are a Christian then you are protected by God. If you’re a sinner the devil is waiting to make you one of his.

I am convinced that he wrote this sermon out of love for his people and his God. He is encouraging them to be reborn by Christ and become righteous before Christ.